[SWortham]

I've been riding on RCE springs with stock struts up front and Ohlins struts in rear. And I have RCE non-lowering camber plates up front with Group N mounts in rear.

I sent an Ohlins strut in for repair earlier this week, as they finally have all the serviceable parts in stock. They'll be replacing the strut shaft which I accidentally broke during installation. Note to those installing these Ohlins struts: do NOT try to tighten the OEM center nuts onto the shaft with an impact wrench. The struts come with new center nuts which have a different pitch to them and it's very important that you find these and use them.

Anyway, after much thought and consideration I've changed my mind about how I'm going to finish the suspension to produce a more compliant setup. I'm going to be getting rid of the RCE non-lowering camber plates and RCE springs. And I just ordered some more parts from RCE.

When I get all of this my setup should be something like this:
- Ohlins struts all around (yay!)
- Stock springs (yeah, that's right)
- RCE lowering camber plates (3/8" lower in the front, without reducing travel baby)
- Group N rear mounts
- Whiteline 24mm front/24mm rear adjustable sway bars
- Kartboy front & rear endlinks
- alignment: -2.0 degrees front camber, -1.5 degrees rear camber, 0 toe all around

Wish me luck. I'll be sure to give my 2 cents on what I think of the change.

Steve

EDIT -- All done exactly like I planned! See post #30 for track impressions.

[stretch]

The best riding combination ever?

I'm not sure if you do the occasional track day or autocross, but you might want larger sways to get your roll resistance up. The stock springs with shortened bump stops (standard on Ohlins, so I've heard) can be a little soft depending on what you're expecting. Not riding on the bump stops lowers the effective stock spring rate quite a bit. Larger sways will reduce body roll without much of a ride quality penalty. That said, 24mm is hardly small, so I think the setup will work well, but I'd consider running 27mm bars (front at least, even if you keep it on the soft setting).

[SWortham]

My car is primarily a daily driver. But I do about 15 autocross events a year, and 1 or 2 track days. Honestly, a relatively soft setup doesn't bother me that much when autocrossing and I think I can make do but I guess we'll see.

[RaceComp Engineering]

Originally Posted by SWortham

I've been riding on RCE springs with stock struts up front and Ohlins struts in rear. And I have RCE non-lowering camber plates up front with Group N mounts in rear.

I sent an Ohlins strut in for repair earlier this week, as they finally have all the serviceable parts in stock. They'll be replacing the strut shaft which I accidentally broke during installation. Note to those installing these Ohlins struts: do NOT try to tighten the OEM center nuts onto the shaft with an impact wrench. The struts come with new center nuts which have a different pitch to them and it's very important that you find these and use them.

Anyway, after much thought and consideration I've changed my mind about how I'm going to finish the suspension to produce a more compliant setup. I'm going to be getting rid of the RCE non-lowering camber plates and RCE springs. And I just ordered some more parts from RCE.

When I get all of this my setup should be something like this:
- Ohlins struts all around (yay!)
- Stock springs (yeah, that's right)
- RCE lowering camber plates (3/8" lower in the front, without reducing travel baby)
- Group N rear mounts
- Whiteline 24mm front/24mm rear adjustable sway bars
- Kartboy front & rear endlinks
- alignment: -2.0 degrees front camber, -1.5 degrees rear camber, 0 toe all around

Wish me luck. I'll be sure to give my 2 cents on what I think of the change.

Steve

Looks fantastic to me. Great to see you got your situation fixed too. Definitely let us know how you like it.

If you do end up feeling that your stock springs are too soft, but still want to maintain great ride quality, go with the Prodrives OR our upcoming taller RCE Springs (maybe we'll call them the stretch spec springs? )

- Andrew

BTW....we include humongous "DO NOT USE AN IMPACT GUN ON THE TOP NUT" with all new RCE camber plate and RCE T2 boxes. Seriously bad way to ruin your day. Torque wrench = And use the Ohlins top nuts. I know you know, but for anyone else reading.

[thrlskr]

I like your set-up! I got a minor flaming when I suggested that OEM spring on Ohlins would be a great setup.

[SWortham]

Originally Posted by RaceComp Engineering

Looks fantastic to me. Great to see you got your situation fixed too. Definitely let us know how you like it.

- Andrew

BTW....we include humongous "DO NOT USE AN IMPACT GUN ON THE TOP NUT" with all new RCE camber plate and RCE T2 boxes. Seriously bad way to ruin your day. Torque wrench =

That's good advice. I don't think I'll use an impact gun on $2,000 struts again, lol -- ouch it hurts me just thinking about it. Besides, the strut rod has a hole in the top for an allen wrench so you can keep it from spinning while you get it started with a wrench. Once it's started you should be able to torque it to spec with a torque wrench.

[lackskill]

lol@stretchspec!

[stretch]

Either that or buy one of those cordless impact wrenches from Harbor Freight. They're only good for like 40 ft-lbs (despite the 250ft-lb rating), which is pretty close to what you want!

[SWortham]

Originally Posted by stretch

Either that or buy one of those cordless impact wrenches from Harbor Freight. They're only good for like 40 ft-lbs (despite the 250ft-lb rating), which is pretty close to what you want!

You know, it's funny... my friend actually had his finger on the trigger, not me. He was using a cordless impact wrench rated for only 25 ft-lbs when torquing that top nut down, and that's when the end of the strut rod snapped. But when you think about it, the OEM nut was probably digging into the metal as he was tightening down, and that's what sheared it off. So it was really the fact that we were using an impact wrench AND the wrong nut that did it in.

I find that because of their very nature that you can't really rely on impact wrenches to torque something to spec anyway.

[SWortham]

I've been waiting to get my Ohlins strut rebuilt for a long time. There was a long delay when I was waiting on parts to come in so they could rebuild it, and when they did come in I didn't get much help from Nate Cover at Ohlins USA. Then I heard Nate recently left the company. I finally spoke to Curtis Henquinet at Ohlins about all of this and he was great. He told me he'd make sure it gets done this week. So today I just got off the phone with Tony @ Ohlins and he finished rebuilding my strut and they're shipping it back to me today.

I already have all the other parts from RCE, so this should mean I'll get everything installed before the next autocross on April 22nd.

I might also be going to Colorado this summer. If I do I might just drive the STI up there. It'd be interesting to see how this setup is for a road trip. I'd also like to drive up Pike's Peak just for the heck of it since I'll be in the area.

[RaceComp Engineering]

Tony and Curtis at Ohlins are both very helpful....we've definitely been happy with how they've handled Nate leaving. They didn't miss a beat really.

Definitely post up your impressions of the Ohlins after the road trip! I think you'll be more then satisfied.


- Andrew

[SWortham]

I finally have all the parts I need. I got the rebuilt Ohlins strut when I expected, and then I just got the RCE lowering camber plates last week. I plan to do the install this weekend.

[chaos311clarity]

sounds awesome man... im about to pull the trigger on a jdm pinks/ohlins/rce&GN combo... i cant wait.

[stretch]

Hey, do you mind measuring how much travel the struts have? It'd also be pertinent to know if their overall length matches that of the stock struts.

Thanks! (You know me- always trying to collect data on this stuff.)

[SWortham]

Originally Posted by stretch

Hey, do you mind measuring how much travel the struts have? It'd also be pertinent to know if their overall length matches that of the stock struts.

Thanks! (You know me- always trying to collect data on this stuff.)

I'll see what I can do.